Garment hanger



Feb. 9, 1960 l.. s. RELLER ET AL GARMENT HANGER Filed Aug. 30, 1956fvuuanot' au15 S. Qzllet Lucilla S. @auf d't''orngg ranma* GARMENTHANGER Louis S. Reller and Lucille S. Reller, Washington, IowaApplication August 30, 1956, Serial No. 607,153

3 Claims. (Cl. 223-93) This invention relates to garment hangers andmore particularly to one providing means for anchoring the garmentrigidly to the hanger bar.

Coat or garment hangers are very old. They usually consist of an arcuatehorizontal bar and a centrally 1ocated hook portion which is adapted todetachably extend over a horizontal supporting rod. While such hangersare successful in holding relatively heavy buttoned coats, they are notsuccessful in holding lightweight, flimsy garments, such as dresses,blouses, formals, slips, or like. With such garments the shoulder strapportions slide downwardly and outwardly on the arcuate bar and, havingpassed the outer end or ends of the bar drop from the hanger.Furthermore, lifting the hanger and garment onto or from a horizontalcloset supporting bar is most diflicult to accomplish without thegarment slipping off of the hanger. Also in removing or replacing otheradjacent loaded hangers, the garments are often accidentally removed anddropped from their respective hangers. Some attempt has been made tosolve this problem by forming slot hooks in the top ends of thehorizontal bar. However, such slot openings are fixed as to position andwhen used have a tendency to distort and/or wrinkle the garment beingheld.

Therefore, the principal object of our invention to provide a coathanger that is capable of detachably rigidly securing a garment to itsarcuate bar.

A further object of this invention is to provide a garment hanger havinga garment securing means that may be easily and quickly adjusted toaccommodate different types of garments and different widths of garmentsbetween the shoulder strap portions.

A still further object of our invention is to provide a garment hangerthat has a fastening means that is easily and quickly actuated.

Still further objects of this invention are to provide an etlicientgarment hanger that is economical in manufacture, durable in use, andrefined in appearance.

These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

Our invention consists in the construction, arrangements, andcombination, of the various parts of the device, whereby the objectscontemplated are attained as hereinafter more fully set forth,specifically pointed out in our claims, and illustrated in theaccompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. l is a front view of our garment hanger in use,

Fig. 2 is an enlarged longitudinal sectional view of the fastening meanstaken on line 2--2 of Fig. l, and

Fig. 3 is an enlarged cross sectional view of the fastening means takenon line 3--3 of Fig. l and more fully illustrates its construction.

In our drawings we show only one fastening means for engaging one strapof a dress or like. However, if desired, two fastening means may be usedfor securing both garment straps. However, as both fastening means wouldbe identical, we will only designate the single unit fastener.

United States Patent Patented Feb. 9, 1960 ICC We have used the numeral10 to designate the horizontal curved hanger bar. This bar is of thecommon type and, as well known, curves downwardly and outrwardly in bothdirections from its hook 11, as shown in Fig. l. In this bar and at oneside of the hook 11 we form an elongated slot 12. We also recommend thaton each side of the bar 10, and adjacent the slit 12, vertical grooves13 be formed, as shown in Fig. 2. The numeral 14 generally designates aU-member or inverted hook portion. On the inner end of this invertedU-hook we have provided two horizontal arm portions 15 and 16. Extendingthrough these two arm portions 15 and 16, and also through the slot 12,is a bolt, rivet, or like, 17, as shown in Fig. 3. By this arrangementan inverted U-hood 14 may be swung upwardly away from the bar 10 ormoved downwardly to embrace the top and sides of the bar, as shown inFig. l. Also, when the inverted U-hood is in elevated position, as shownby broken lines in Fig. l, it may be slid toward or away from the hookportion 11 in order to accommodate different types and sizes ofgarments. The inverted U-hood consists of two sides, 18 and 19respectively, and a top portion 20. The top portion 20 has a widthgreater than the width between the two side portions 18 and 19 in orderto provide the top gripping flanges 21. These ridges or flanged portions21 extend in opposite hori zontal directions and provide successfulgripping means for holding onto and actuating the inverted U-hood forreleasing or securing a garment 2.2. When the inverted U-member is in alower effective position, its top 20 will engage the top surface of thehanger bar and its two sides 18 and 19 will engage the two sides of thebar 10 respectively. Complementary with the grooves 13 of the bar 10 werecommend that similar conforming grooves 23 be formed in the sides 18and 19 of the inverted U-hood, as shown in Fig. 2.

The practical operation of the device is as follows:

Before the garment is placed on the hanger bar, the inverted U-hood iselevated, as shown by broken lines in Fig. l. The garment is then placedin the usual man- Y ner on the hanger bar 10, and the inverted U-hood isslid forth or back to bring its position over one of the shoulderportions of the garment, after which it is lowered onto that part of theshoulder portion of the garment that is embracing the hanger bar. Thisaction wedges the shoulder portion of the garment between the invertedU-hood and the hanger bar 10, thus successfully securing the garment tothe hanger bar without danger of accidental detachment therefrom. Thegrooves 13 and 23 cooperating in more effectively holding the garmentonto the garment hanger. With the garment so secured to the hanger bar,the garment hanger may be lifted onto or off of a rod support or likewithout the possibility of the garment slipping from the hanger. Toremove the garment so held, it is merely necessary to manually grasp theange or lug portions 21 and swing the inverted U-hood upwardly and outof contact with the shoulder portion of the garment.

Some changes may be made in the construction and arrangement of ourgarment hanger without departing from the real spirit and purpose of ourinvention, and it is our intention to cover by our claims, any modifiedforms of structure or use of mechanical equivalents which may bereasonably included within their scope.

We claim:

l. In a garment hanger, a bar having a longitudinally extendinghorizontal slot, a hook on said bar, an inverted U-hood having two sidearm portions, and a shaft member extending through said arm portions ofsaid hood and said slot whereby said hood is hingedly and slidablysecured to said bar; said hood having an open top area adjacent to andabove said shaft for permitting its hinged action relative to said barand said hood being open at both ends with said open ends embracing saidbar when said hood is in a lowered position on said bar.

2. In a garment hanger, a bar having a longitudinally extendinghorizontal slot, a hook on said bar, an inverted U-hood having two sidearm portions, a shaft member extending through said arm portions of saidhood and said slot whereby said hood is hingedly and slidably secured tosaid bar; said hood having an open top area adjacent to and above saidshaft for permitting its hinged action relative to said bar and saidhood being open at both ends with said open ends embracing said bar whensaid hood is in a lowered position on said bar, and a manual gripportion on said hood.

3. In a garment hanger, a bar having a longitudinally extendinghorizontal slot, a hook on said bar, an inverted U-hood having two sidearm portions, a shaft member extending through said arm portions of saidhood and said slot whereby said hood is hingedly and slidably secured tosaid bar; said hood having an open top area adjacent to and above saidshaft for permitting its hinged action relative to said bar and saidhood being open at both ends with said open ends embracing said bar whensaid hood is in a lowered position on said bar, and a manual gripportion on said hood, said hood having a top portion and two downwardlyextending sides with its top of a width greater than the width betweenits two sides for producing at least one manual gripping 10 ridge.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 151,316,618 Johnson Sept. 23, 1919 1,546,609 Scheinman July 21, 19251,768,005 Schwartzman June 24, 1930 2,096,303 Kroll Oct. 19, 19372,555,672 Baugh June S, 1951

